


The Magician

by LadyofShalott



Series: Tarot [8]
Category: Professional Wrestling, WWE, 新日本プロレス | New Japan Pro-Wrestling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 18:42:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11606655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyofShalott/pseuds/LadyofShalott
Summary: Kenny's starting to find himself again





	The Magician

**Author's Note:**

> As always, while I adore these men, I don't know them. It's all fiction.

**The Magician: Skill, logic and intellect. His number is one, the number of beginnings. His white robe symbolizes purity and innocence, and the red cloak symbolizes experience and worldly knowledge. That symbolism is repeated in the flowers at his feet**

 

Kenny has taken Matt’s words to heart. He’s rededicated himself to wrestling, and has been putting in ridiculous hours in the gym. He feels better than he has in ages, like he’s sweated out some of the poison. He’s been working out in the ring with Chase and Page and a few other guys, and that’s been good for everybody. 

Outside the gym and the ring, he’s been spending a lot of time alone. Occasionally he meets up with Tanahashi for coffee. Hiroshi comments at one point that it seems as if something has reignited Kenny’s passion for wrestling, and Kenny thinks he’s right. It’s as if purging all the other stuff from his system has made room for him to fall back in love with the business – and he is. He’s in love with wrestling like he hasn’t been in years, and all his hard work is making him better than he’s ever been. 

Marty and Adam both call to check on him every couple of days. He thinks it’s sweet that they worry about him. When Matt and Nick aren’t in Japan, they’re in contact in some form every day. It feels strange to him, having everyone looking out for him. He’s usually the one doing the mothering. He’s actually even made a few new friends, mostly through Marty – like Zack Sabre, who apparently is not, in fact involved with Kota. He’s tight with Marty, though, and Kenny wonders if perhaps Marty’s asked Zack to keep an eye on him while Marty’s not there to do it himself.

Kenny’s glad that Matt cornered him and made him listen to reason. He’s managed to find some peace, finally. He’s able to step back and look objectively at the situations with Kota and with Seth, such as they are. That’s where his mind goes as he walks through the park near his home again, this time during the day, and with what seems like a million flowers in full bloom. For the first time in months, Kenny is able to appreciate the simple pleasure of the sun on his skin and a quiet that seems comforting instead of oppressive.

He and Kota are, as Matt had said, combustible. When they were together, the passion between them became something huge and choking and overwhelming that neither of them was strong enough to endure. There were times around Kota when everything was so intense and just so… much… that Kenny felt like he couldn’t breathe; that this insane conflagration between them sucked all the air out of the room to feed itself, to grow brighter and all-consuming to the point that it destroyed everything in its path – the two of them included. 

Kenny smiles softly as he passes a stand of red rose bushes, the air around them redolent with their heady scent. Those are a perfect metaphor for Kota, the thinks – exquisitely beautiful, not nearly as delicate as they look, their vibrant red the color of passion, their stems covered in razor-sharp thorns that will make you bleed if you hold onto them too tightly.

Kenny is sure that if he gets back together with Kota, he’s going to end up bleeding. Or burning. Or drowning in the tsunami that is Kota. He doesn’t hold that against Kota. That’s just who Kota is. He isn’t intentionally overwhelming, but he’s overwhelming all the same. He knows, too, that he is partly at fault there. He’s the earthquake that triggers the tsunami. He’s the lightning strike that ignites the fire. He’s the idiot who needs to walk away and not put himself through that again. He runs one fingertip over a velvety red petal, then turns from the roses and continues along the path.

Ten minutes later, he comes to a beautifully designed area with lilies blooming everywhere near a small stream. There’s a bench nearby, and he sits. All the blooms are beautiful, but rather than the showy, colorful ones, his eye settle on the white ones – pure, unblemished, gentle in their beauty. They make him think of Seth. At first, it’s a memory triggered by the visual cue. He remembers the first time he took Seth home with him to Canada. Seth had ended up with a headache, so Kenny had gone out for groceries and left him home to nap. While he was out, on a whim, Kenny had bought a small bouquet of perfect white lilies.

 

_“You bought me flowers?” Seth looks up at him, puzzled, one finger tracing delicately over a silky petal. “You realize I’m not a girl, right?”_

_“I don’t know, man, the hair…” Kenny teases, twirling a strand around his finger as he flops down beside Seth on the couch. “You weren’t feeling well, and I saw them, and I… well, I thought of you.” And no, Kenny Fucking Omega is not blushing. Not even a little._

_“Thank you,” Seth says, smiling – then biting his lip and trying not to laugh, because yes, Kenny Fucking Omega is blushing, and it’s quite possibly the cutest thing he’s ever seen. “I love them. And you.” He sets the flowers aside and pulls Kenny into a kiss, and Kenny just melts in his arms._

 

Kenny knows it’s weird that he associates lilies with his ex. Yes, Seth is absolutely beautiful, and that is magnified at least tenfold every time he smiles. The thing is that lilies seem so delicate, and there’s nothing delicate about Seth. He’s one of the strongest people Kenny’s ever known. Seth was going through some crap when Kenny met him, but he handled it with absolute grace and came out the other side stronger for having gone through it. 

What they had, he thinks, was pure and innocent and… comfortable. Simply being in Seth’s presence soothed him like nothing else before or since. There was nothing chaotic between them… nothing destructive. 

Where Kota was a raging inferno, Seth was the steady crackle of a warm hearth fire welcoming him in out of the cold. Kota was the blazing sun, sometimes too intense in its heat, but Seth was his northern star, unwavering, keeping him steady in the dark. Where Kota was a tsunami, Seth was the gentle rain falling on parched earth, soothing and steady. It was nothing that Kenny triggered. He knows that he’s better for having had Seth in his life… that being with him helped to shape the person Kenny is today.

He realizes, suddenly, that he has never let himself grieve that loss. It was all so sudden that when he left for Japan he just blocked it out and walled it off in his mind, and then everything was a whirlwind and he was going nonstop. He never gave himself time to process what had happened, and because of that, his heart never had a chance to heal. Some part of him is mildly annoyed that Matt had to help him figure that out.

Nick and Matt had arrived in Japan the previous evening for a series of shows, and Kenny figures he ought to thank Matt for helping him out, but they had both been exhausted after dinner, and he doesn’t want to bother them until they’ve had a chance to rest. On his way home, he stops at the florist’s and places an order.

Three hours later, his phone is ringing.

“You bought me flowers?” Matt asks, bewildered.

“Yeah,” Kenny replies. “I realized I never really thanked you for helping me get my head on straight. Don’t worry, I’ll feed you, too.”

“You realize I’m not a girl, right?”

“I don’t know, man, the hair…” And there’s a moment of déjà vu there, but for the first time in months, Kenny’s able to laugh with no trace of bitterness clinging to his happiness.


End file.
